


Aquariums, Souls, and Stars

by seavery



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, Fluff, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Soulmates, Stargazing, Swearing, angst if you squint, iwaizumi hajime is in love, iwaoi - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:15:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28699008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seavery/pseuds/seavery
Summary: Iwaizumi realizes just how in love he is with Oikawa
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 22
Kudos: 129





	1. fuck the rings

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for checking this out! My anime twitter is @/DENK1CALAMARI

The aquarium air is crisp, sending chills up Iwaizumi’s bare arms, his jacket on his boyfriend’s shoulders. Oikawa’s fingers, interlaced with his own, are freezing against his hot skin. With his free hand Oikawa points at the glowing jellyfish in the tank, briefly turning with a child-like grin on his face, before turning back to the jellyfish and gently placing a hand on the glass, eyes sparkling with curiosity and awe and happiness.

The pale blue light, with the glow of the jellyfish, accentuates the sharpness of Oikawa’s face. He looks ethereal, otherworldly. It’s a direct contrast to this morning when he had crusted drool on his cheek and the worst morning breath a person could have.

He still looked perfect.

Iwaizumi Hajime doesn’t feel like a lovestruck teenager anymore. His heart isn’t racing, his hands aren’t sweaty, and he isn’t nervous to be on a date with his childhood best friend. His chest feels full with unadulterated warmth and contentment, it feels right. It feels like home.

Oikawa blindly reaches for his drink in Iwaizumi’s other hand as he reads a panel, and he passes it to him, placing it directly in his grasp so he doesn’t fumble the cup. He watches as he misses his mouth with the straw and watches as he briefly pouts, then catches the straw properly and Iwaizumi smiles.  


He feels whole, content, completely and utterly in love.

\- - -

Just before the two graduated, they had laid in Oikawa’s backyard under the stars, and Oikawa had turned to him, eyes burning holes into the side of Iwaizumi’s head. He had almost made a smart-ass comment, something along the lines of ‘take a picture, it’ll last longer’ when Oikawa cut his train of thought.

“Do you believe in soulmates?” Iwaizumi frowned and turned to face him, and found Oikawa staring unflinchingly. He stared at Iwaizumi, illuminated by the full moon, breathtakingly beautiful. Iwaizumi stared back at him, confusion and irritation forgotten as he mentally traced the bridge of his nose and bow of his lips.  


Oikawa moved on, undisturbed by his silence. “Because I do. Energy takes shape in matter, and all energy is recycled, yeah? I think that stars become souls when they explode and split, and I like to think that soulmates are just pieces from the same star.” He sat up, looked down at Iwaizumi. “And I think you’re a piece of my star.”

He felt his face flush, red hot and hoped Oikawa couldn’t tell in the light. Overwhelmed, he looked away and asked, “How do you know you’re not a piece of my star?”

Oikawa scoffs. “I was trying to be romantic, Iwa-chan, you don’t have to be rude.” He crossed his arms and laid back in the grass, staring directly at the sky with a pout.  


Iwaizumi rolled his eyes and then onto his side, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and pulling him into a kiss. He pulled away and wanted to say something, how he was a piece of his star and always wanted to be, but he kept kissing him instead.

Iwaizumi had kissed Oikawa under the night sky until their lips were numb and everywhere else was cold, trying to show him everything he was scared to say.

\- - -

Sitting in the cold aquarium, he realized he truly did want him forever. He wanted Oikawa’s whining, their soft mornings together, the good and the bad, his random facts and conspiracies, the late nights. He wanted it forever, like souls and stars and energy reincarnates. He wanted to feel consumed by sheer goodness like this everyday for the rest of his life and he wanted Oikawa beside him the entire way.

“Apparently the thing that makes them glow is called bioluminescence and it’s common in- Iwa-chan you’re not listening.” Oikawa frowns at him before switching to a teasing look of false concern. “Are you alright? You’ve got a strange look on your face, like you’re feeling emotions.”

Iwaizumi smiles and rubs his thumb gently over Oikawa’s knuckles. “Tooru, how would you feel if I asked you to marry me?”

Oikawa, in the midst of taking a drink, choked. He thumped his chest until he quit coughing and stared incredulously at Iwaizumi. He was quiet for a moment before he whispered, “Would you mean it?”

“Of course I would, I wouldn’t bring it up if I wasn’t serious, dumbass.”

“You can’t suggest marriage and then insult me. That isn’t how this works.”

“I love you.” He looks at Oikawa and watches his face soften. Now he’s nervous, but this time he’s determined. “I’ve loved you since we were kids and not once have I stopped. Not when you were having your bad days, not when you were halfway across the world, not once in all the years we’ve known each other.” He squeezes Oikawa’s hand, using it as an anchor so he doesn’t float off into space before he can finish. “Do you remember that night we laid under the stars and you talked about soulmates? About how broken stars are soulmates and energy is just reshaped? Well, I want us to stay that way until we become different energy and find each other in our next forms.”

Oikawa sniffles, sparkling tears hanging on his lashes. “You’re such a fucking sap, Hajime.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Of course it is.” He throws his arms around Iwaizumi’s shoulders and hides his face in his neck, body shaking as he laughs and cries. Iwaizumi squeezes him tight around the waist, hands tight in his jacket, holding his body as physically close as he can. He feels that warmth in his chest again and laughs, he laughs at how right this is, how good it feels. He laughs again as he grabs Oikawa’s face in both his hands, kissing him full on the lips, eyes scrunched shut and mouth halfway to a smile. Oikawa laughs against him, high on happiness and Iwaizumi peppers kisses all over his face, from the tip of his nose to his cheekbones to his eyes to the corners of his mouth.

A thought hits him and he draws back. “I don’t have rings but I can buy them later-”

“Fuck the rings,” Oikawa says. He laughs, a pure boyish laugh. “Fuck the rings! I don’t need them because I have you and you asked me, that’s good enough for me. You could have flown me a paper airplane with ‘marry me? Yes or no?’ on it and it would have been enough.”

Iwaizumi gazes at him and can’t think of what to say in response, so he kisses him again, kisses him hard. Kisses him numb.


	2. Do you believe in soulmates?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the night of stargazing briefly looked at in chapter one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was planning on keeping ASAS a one shot but I could not stop thinking about the stargazing scene so I just HAD to expand on it and I'm super satisfied with it, and I hope you are too :)

The lights go out before Oikawa’s hand reaches the switch.

One moment, Iwaizumi is shielding his tired eyes from the light that’s not as bright as it seems, and then there’s nothing. Only the faint green glow of the stick-on stars on Oikawa’s ceiling perseveres, various constellations they hung together as kids.

There’s a few moments of silence and Iwaizumi bites back a laugh, instinct to fill the sudden silence. As his eyes adjust to the dark he can see Oikawa’s frozen silhouette, hand still outstretched. He can picture the exact look on his boyfriend’s face in his mind.

He knows the disappointed crease between his brows, the pout gracing his lips. He also knows the pout is going to turn into a blatantly obvious statement, the one Oikawa knows isn’t needed, but nevertheless needs to get out of his head.

“The lights are out.”

It takes everything in him not to burst out laughing, and only because he knows Oikawa would spend the rest of the night pouting and refusing to cuddle him. “Well, it’s a good thing that was what we wanted.”

Iwaizumi hears Oikawa move and then feels the bed dip at his feet, and silence fills the space between them again.

The seconds drag on and Iwaizumi would be content to roll over and pull his boyfriend to his chest, to let the little shit fidget until he’s comfortable, to feel his freezing fingers move under the hem of his shirt and press against his burning skin. But he can’t do that since Oikawa isn’t lying next to him, perched at the end of their- of his bed, and it means he’s got something else to say.

“Spit it out or come lay down,” he says, tone nicer than his words. Oikawa huffs but doesn’t say anything. Iwaizumi sits up, rubbing his face, and looks at the vague outline, at the ray of moonlight from the crack in the curtain that sits across Oikawa's left eye. “It’s just a power outage. Don’t tell me you re-developed a fear of the dark."

The accusation pulls Oikawa out of his head and he blindly smacks at Iwaizumi’s leg, voice indignant as he says, “I’nm not fucking scared of the dark, Iwa. I just… the power is out.”

Iwaizumi wants to sigh but stops himself, knowing it’ll make Oikawa fold in on himself. Instead he scoots forward, gently grabbing the back of Oikawa’s neck and threading his fingers through the hairs at the base of his neck. Grounding him. “We've established that. What about it?”

Oikawa leans back into his touch, cheek pressing against his wrist, a slow, stuttering breath leaving him. He opens his mouth to speak and silently stutters before speaking. “If the power is out then we can see the stars.”

Iwaizumi blinks. “We can see the stars when the power is on.”

Oikawa huffs again. “Yeah, no shit. But, if all the lights are on then there’s like… light pollution and shit. So without the power we can see all of the stars.”

Iwaizumi blinks a few times. “You want to stargaze?”

He can practically hear Oikawa’s eye roll. “Yes,” his voice exasperated. “We might as well take the opportunity. It’s not always easy to see all of the stars.” His words start tumbling out of him, fast and blurred together with rising panic. “Not to mention soon enough we won’t exactly be in a position to do these things, so we should do as much as we can together before-”

“Hey, hey, hey. Baby, it’s alright, slow down.” Iwaizumi carefully squeezes the hand against his neck and leans in, gently knocking his forehead to his temple. Oikawa leans into the touch, and even in the dark Iwaizumi can see the tight line of his mouth.

Iwaizumi absolutely hates thinking about anything past the next few months, and he knows Oikawa does too. He hates how his chest feels like it’s collapsing in on itself at the mere thought of being thousands of miles away from his best friend, his boyfriend, his home. His stomach turns with the knowledge they won’t be a reach away from each other and they’re going to have to do things almost completely on their own for once in their lives. He swallows hard, fighting back bile, and flexes his free hand slightly. It’s a weak attempt at calming himself and he knows it. “It’s okay, it's okay. We can go.”

He presses a kiss to Oikawa’s temple and closes his eyes, breathing in deep, the faint smell of his shampoo lingering in his nose, familiar and comforting. Oikawa sniffs hard like he was close to tears and tilts his nose up, nudging at the hard line of Iwaizumi's jaw and then his nose. His hand travels up Iwaizumi’s arm, cold fingertips a ghostly touch as they travel from bicep to neck to gently cupping his jaw. His eyes flutter shut, and he leans in with a slight frown. He presses a soft kiss to the corner of Iwaizumi’s mouth, another ghostly touch, and Iwaizumi sighs heavily against him.

Oikawa pulls back and wipes harshly at his eyes, using his entire hand the way toddler does. “Let’s go before it kicks back on.”

Iwaizumi climbs out of bed, stretches his arms up and over his head while Oikawa blindly pats the floor for his sweatshirt. He finds it and tugs it on, his hair sticking out with static electricity. Oikawa reaches out for him and intertwines their fingers, jumping at the slight shock before pulling his door open. He pokes his head out, looking both ways to see if the coast is clear, before slipping out and dragging Iwaizumi with him. 

Iwaizumi does laugh at this, and it earns him a pointed look in return. There’s no real reason to be wary of Oikawa’s parents. Other than being accepting- and overjoyed when the two did get together, settling a bet between them- they went to bed a few hours before the boys and generally let the two do as they please. Despite that, Oikawa still acts as if he’s a ten-year old sneaking out of bed to snatch cookies rather than the almost adult who wants to stargaze with his boyfriend.

They creep out the back door, hinges squeaking just enough to make Oikawa wince, and move down the steps, the chilly night air washing over Iwaizumi’s bare arms. Oikawa promptly sits in the middle of the yard and tugs him down on his right before letting go of his hand. Iwaizumi lays back in the grass with his arms crossed behind his head, and watches Oikawa. He watches with a small smile as he tugs the hood on and evens out the strings, watches as he leans back and lays straight out, legs crossed at the ankle. He watches as he slips his hands into the sweatshirt pocket, as he sees the fabric move slightly as he fiddles with his fingertips. He drags his eyes over the profile of Oikawa’s face and something in him warms at the ease on his face, the comfort of seeing the stars.

Oikawa glances at him from the corner of his eye and Iwaizumi turns away from him, towards the sky. Oikawa chuckles and iwaizumi can feel his face warm even through the night chill.

He waits for one of the smug remarks Oikawa reserves for times like this, times when he catches Iwaizumi staring, but there’s nothing. Figuring he’s still upset, Iwaizumi just reaches a hand out and places it under Oikawa’s head, mindlessly tracing patterns against the hood’s fabric.

They sit in silence under the starry sky for god knows how long, minutes, hours, days, when Iwaizumi becomes overly aware of Oikawa’s staring. He doesn’t remember feeling Oikawa’s head turn and he’s surprised he hadn’t felt the holes he’s been burning into the side of his head. He thinks about making a snarky comment, telling him to take a picture, but Oikawa cuts him off.

“Do you believe in soulmates?”

Iwaizumi turns his head and stares. Oikawa doesn’t blink or break eye contact, just stares him down. The tips of his ears heat and Iwaizumi clenches his jaw, staring back out of unintentional competitive desire and the overwhelming urge to make Oikawa happy, a recurrent result of Oikawa’s undivided attention. He makes him weak, susceptible to anything that could please Oikawa.

He also makes Iwaizumi want to reach out and trace a finger along his cupid’s bow and bridge of his nose.

Oikawa carries on, unperturbed by Iwaizumi’s lack of verbal response. “Because I do. Energy takes shape in matter, and all energy is recycled, yeah? I think that stars become souls when they explode and split, and I like to think that soulmates… are just pieces from the same star.” He sits up, looking away, and Iwaizumi can see his hands fidgeting in the sweatshirt pocket again, then stilling suddenly. Oikawa exhales sharply and looks down, meeting Iwaizumi’s eyes, the eyes that are almost always on him. “I think you’re a piece of my star.”

Iwaizumi’s face burns red hot and he breaks the eye contact, body overheating, overwhelmed, and _so fucking in love_. He tries desperately to play it off, even though he’s certain Oikawa can see him blushing in the moonlight. “How do you know you’re not a piece of my star?”

Oikawa scoffs, an indignant and offended sound, and drags his hand down his exasperation filled face. “I was _trying_ to be romantic, Iwa-chan. You don’t have to be rude.” He crosses his arms with a pout and lays back in the grass, staring pointedly at the sky with a scowl.

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes and then onto his side, propping up on his elbow to lean over Oikawa. Oikawa glances at him and then back at the stars, stubborn as ever. Iwaizumi bites back a smile and grabs a fistful of Oikawa’s sweatshirt to pull him into a kiss. Oikawa huffs before smiling against his lips, hands sliding out of his pocket and onto Iwaizumi’s body.

Iwaizumi pulls back, breathing shallowly. He wants to say something, anything, in response but just gapes like a fish. He can’t make himself sat that of course he’s a part of Oikawa’s star, he always has and always will be, in every life.

Oikawa whispers, “I know.” in his hesitation, and smiles brighter than the fucking sun. Iwaizumi breaks and smiles too, wide and toothy because of course Oikawa knows, he always knows.

So he skips the words, the struggle of verbalizing his love for Oikawa Tooru, and opts for his personal love language: touch. He kisses him hard and Oikawa giggles- he _fucking_ giggles- against his lips and throws his arms around Iwaizumi’s neck. He’s pulled down on top of him and Iwaizumi laughs into the kiss, hand still bunched in his sweatshirt.

He laughs, knowing the two of them are alright, will always be alright, and he laughs and kisses the love of his life under the stars until their hands and lips and noses and feet are numb. Then he drags Oikawa back inside and they curl in bed together, cold hands slid underneath shirt hems to press against quickly heating skin. And he laughs softly, just before drifting off to sleep.

Fucking stars.


End file.
